Israel has offered to lay a natural gas pipeline through Turkey, but Ankara is
reluctant to accept due to ongoing tension between the countries, the Hurriyet
newspaper quoted a Turkish Energy Ministry official as saying on
Friday.

“Israel has made a bid to build a pipeline to Turkey within the
last two weeks,” Hurriyet quoted the official as saying. “But we have a policy
regarding Israel, and the claim that Turkey leans towards this idea is not
true.”

The pipeline would allow Israel to export gas to Europe, but the
Turkish government has not given a response to the proposal.

This follows
reports in Yediot Aharonot that two Israelis held two meetings in Turkey with
officials from the country’s Energy Ministry to present the proposal. The story
was reported in the Turkish daily Vatan on Thursday.

Israel recently
allowed Turkey to send materials into the Gaza Strip to build a
hospital.

Hurriyet noted that this relates to one of the three conditions
that Ankara presented to Jerusalem for overcoming tensions, lifting the “siege”
on Gaza.